


Nothing To Tell

by prettysophist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:55:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26138491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prettysophist/pseuds/prettysophist
Summary: Susan travels for work, and Hannah comes along for the ride. Nothing to see here. They're just friends, after all.
Relationships: Hannah Abbott/Susan Bones
Comments: 20
Kudos: 20
Collections: Magical Vacation Manip/Writing Fest





	Nothing To Tell

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Xedra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xedra/gifts).



> Art by Xedra

Susan leans across the bar, cheeks flushed from the cold outside, eyes sparkling through wet eyelashes. Entirely too cheerful and entirely too sober for a bar patron at three in the afternoon.

"I got it! I got the job!"

"That's fantastic!" Hannah responds automatically. Her heart sinks just a little as she says it, as she imagines weeks and months of days without Susan's smiling face in them. They haven't been apart more than a week since finishing Hogwarts, not truly. Their lives have taken different paths, but still most days they have found time for lunch on Susan's break or a drink on Hannah's. 

  
  


Something in Hannah's face or voice must give her away, because Susan's excitement wavers for a moment before reestablishing itself, brighter than ever.

"You should come with me!"

Hope, fear. She wants to, she does, but…

"Oh, I couldn't. It'll be four months, I don't think I even have that much vacation time saved up - "

"Yes, you do," Tom interrupts.

She glares. She does not, but the interfering bastard is not above fixing the books if he gets his hands on them first. 

" - and I can't leave Hector for th - "

"Bring him, he's tiny, and we won't be going through Muggle customs anyway."

"Right."

"Think about it," Susan urges. "Look, I have to go, but I'll see you tomorrow, right?"

"Right."

Susan smacks a kiss onto her cheek and whirls back out into the rain.

Tom chuckles knowingly, and Hannah glares again.

"We're just friends," she reiterates.

"Of course you are, bunny. But if I had a friend who looked like that wanting to take me on holiday with them, I wouldn't be quibbling about how many vacation days I might or might not have saved. Seize the day and all that."

* * *

It's still raining when they leave England four days later. Both of their house plants have been dropped off at Longbottom Manor, Susan's cat is at Ernie's, and Hector the pygmy puff is tucked snugly into the pocket of Hannah's least ancient hoodie.

Hannah can hear her heart beating. Probably no faster than usual, but louder, filling her head with sound. Her fingers brush against Susan's on the seashell portkey. Casual. Innocent. Friendly.

The world swirls dizzyingly around them.

Hannah smells the salt air and feels the sudden sun on her skin before she opens her eyes. The beach is empty, yellow sand washed smooth by the tide, stretching away up towards rough sand dunes filled with plants Hannah has never seen before. One of them doesn't quite move with the wind the way the others do.

A rock path winds through the dunes, every paver perfectly in position, although nothing but sand fills the gaps. They follow it up to a tiny cabin with a surprisingly spacious interior. There's only one main room, with two double beds on one side of it and a kitchen on the other. Sunlight catches every window perfectly, filling the rooms with light. A door at the back of the room leads into a combined laundry and bathroom.

Hannah drops her bags precisely between the two beds, hovering awkwardly as she pretends she's not waiting for Susan to take first pick. Just like their first night at Hogwarts. Just like every time they've shared a guest room at a friend's house. 

Susan looks askance at her, but knows better by now than to comment. She drops her bags onto the bed further from the window. She has more of them than Hannah, probably containing duplicates of all the things Hannah might have forgotten to pack.

Everything feels familiar and normal, but Hannah's heart is still beating that overwhelming, too loud beat.

"I'll take first shower, if that's ok?" Susan asks over the pounding. Hannah is almost surprised she can't hear it.

"Of course! Yeah, I'll um...I need to unpack anyway."

Hannah's unpacking effort is symbolic at best. She makes a nest of clothes for Hector in one of the top drawers of the dresser, leaving enough of a gap for him to crawl out when he gets tired of napping and wants company. She shakes the rest of her clothes out at the foot of her bed, looking for shorts and a specific blue t-shirt to change into. 

She sees movement down in the ocean that might or might not be a mermaid at this distance. She knows there is a large settlement of them further out, in an old sunken city. Susan showed her pictures when she first applied for this job. 

She is still kneeling on the bed with her nose squished up against the glass when Susan finishes her shower. Susan's generous curves wrapped only in a towel take her breath away for a moment. It's not the first time they've seen each other partially dressed, but it is the first time since she...noticed herself noticing. The attraction has been there for a long time, but the self-conscious awareness of it is new and terrifying.

Susan notices her looking and winks. Winks! As though they don't both know that Hannah has never made a first move in her life, Hannah thinks indignantly. 

If she's been looking at Hannah the way Hannah looks at her, she must know it's on her to do something about it. Since she hasn't made anything remotely like a move, winking at her is just rude. Unless she thinks that inviting Hannah here counts as a move. Which it does not!

"Shower!" she squeaks hurriedly.

She hears Susan chuckle behind her. Just rude.

A glance in the mirror tells her that she is blushing just as horribly as she had feared. 

Ah, fuck.

If this is the first hour of their stay, what kind of mess is she going to be after four months?

The bathroom door slams against the wall as she reopens it with purpose. 

Susan is naked. Of course she is.

Well, it is too late now, anyway.

"I'm going to kiss you now," she warns, with what is hopefully closer to confidence and conviction than panic.

Susan has the grace to look surprised, although there is also a touch of smugness in the mix that Hannah is going to have words with her about later.

Her skin is soft and warm and still damp from her shower. Her hair smells like she borrowed Hannah's cinnamon shampoo. Her lips are perfect.

For a few moments, the world is still around them, and then Hannah's too loud heart jolts her away, breathless and uncertain. Susan is smiling at her, soft and warm like her skin. It's too much to deal with all at once.

"I'm going to go and have that shower now," she mutters.

Back in the bathroom, she sinks to the floor with her face in her hands. She's done it now. 

It's going to be an interesting four months.


End file.
